The Supreme Court provided additional clarification on the maximum period that an applicant may be detained while awaiting a Dublin transfer. The court noted that when determining the length of time that an applicant in the Dublin procedure may be detained, courts must apply the standards outlined in the Dublin regulation and not national legislation pertaining to the detention of applicants for international protection.

The court confirmed that when read in conjunction with national legislation the maximum time limits for detaining an applicant in the Dublin procedure are the following:

• If the applicant does not appeal the decision, the maximum detention period is six weeks starting from the day after the deadline for submitting an appeal
• In the case of an appeal, the six-week period begins from the date that the appeal ceases to have a suspensory effect. This means that it falls upon national courts to determine whether an applicant should be granted the right to remain in Estonia until a final decision is issued as it the courts are responsible for determining whether a case should have suspensory effect. Courts should rely on national legislation as well as European law when considering whether to grant suspensory effect. If a court has not ruled on whether a case should have a suspensive effect, the applicant has the right to remain in Estonia until a decision has been issued in the appeal case or until a higher court concludes that the applicant should be transferred and there is no need for the appeal to be granted suspensory effect.

After the aforementioned periods of time, an applicant awaiting a Dublin transfer must be released from detention even if the court considers there to be a risk of absconding.

The court further concluded that a decision to transfer an applicant under the Dublin procedure cannot be considered a final outcome within the meaning of Article 2(e) of the Asylum Procedures Directive.